Desk-drawer-locking mechanism



Sept. 8, 1925.

i L. w. sEco'Y DESK DRAWER LOCKING MECHANISM 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept 8, 1925 L. W. SECOY DESK DRAWER LOCKING ISECHANISM Filed July 22, 1922 4 $heets-Sheet 2 lWM/[S I Momma 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July 22, 1922 L. W. SECOY DESK DRAWER LOCKING MECHANISM Sept. 8, 1925';

iiiEfiEE z 3 Ii 0 Patented Sept. 8, 1925.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS W. SECO'Y, OF VIHITESBORO, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOIR'IO QUIGLEY FURNIT'O'RE COMPANY, OF WI-IITESBORO,

NEW YORK, A CORPORATION.

DESK-DRAWER-LOCKIN G MECHANISM.

\To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS W. SEooY, a

citizen of the United States, and a residentof ."Vhitesboro, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Desk- DrawerLocking Mechanism; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the reference numerals marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

My present invention relates to deskdrawer locking mechanisms and more particularly to the means whereby a locking bar at the rear of the drawers to be locked may be moved to locking position by moving the center or controlling drawer of the desk to inward position.

The purpose of my invention is to provide an improved desk drawer locking mechanism of the class described and particularly to provide very simple but effec tive means for moving the locking bar to locking position.

A further object is to provide a control mechanism for the locking bar which control mechanism is formed of one single piece readily and economically formed and readily placed in operative position in the desk without special mountings or attachments therefor, and further to have said control member resilient so that it allows further drawers to be moved to locked position and dispenses with springs in other parts of the mechanism.

Another object is to provide a deskdrawer locking mechanism wherein a minimum amount of movement of the center or other controlling drawer easily moves the locking bar to position where the drawers to be locked are positively locked and wherein a minimum amount of outward motion of the controlling drawer will allow the looking bar to automatically move to unlocked or disengaged position. I

Further objects and advantages of my invention will appear from the specification and claimsherein.

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a desk equipped with a-drawer locking mechanism embodying my invention, the section being taken on a plane within the left hand drawers and looking towards the center or controlling drawer of the desk, all the pedes tal drawers being fully housed and the locking bar moved to locking position by the center drawer beingmoved inward. V

Fig. 2 is a top view on an enlarged scale of a portion of said desk with the desk top removed, the parts being in the position they occupy when the center drawer first engages the control crank shaft.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to .Fig. 1 with the parts in the relative position they occupy when the locking bar is temporarily lowered to unlocking position by the pushing in of one drawer when the center drawer is already in.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view on line 44.- of Fig. 2 but with the parts in locked position.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the crank shaft.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description it will be seen that the desk drawer locking mechanism is applied to an ordinary desk having a top 10 with side pedestals housing a series of side drawers as 11, 12 and 13 and housing between said side pedestals a top central drawer 14. The desired arrangement is to have the said middle or top drawer 14 auto matically lock the side drawers 11, 12 and 13 in housed or closed position by the closing of the said middle drawer.

The means for looking the said side drawers consists of a locking bar 15 slidingly mounted on adjacent members of the desk frame so as to have a limited vertical movement. Said locking bar 15 is provided with projecting pins or screws 16 opposite the rear of each of said side drawers and adapted to engage the downwardly opening pocket 17 of a hook 18 projecting rearwardly from the back of each side drawer.

Thev locking bar 15 is mounted so as to have the desired amount of vertical movement by being provided in its upper and lower ends with transversely extending slots 19 and 20 respectively and by having upper and lower headed screws 21 and 22 extend through said slots into adjacent desk frame members 23 and 24 respectively. Preferably a washer 25 will be interposed between the head of each of said screws and the locking bar '15. Downward movement of the locking bar may be limited by the upper end of the lower slot 20 resting against the lower mounting screw 22.

It will now be seen that'when the locking bar is in raised position the locking pins or screws 16 will be moved up into the pocket 17 of the hooks 1801: such of the side 7 drawers as are in housed or, fully closed position andthatwhen the lockingbar is l oweredthe said locking pins 16 will be disengagedfl fromnthe hooks 18 so. that the drawersmay be read ily pulled out. iT e The means for controlling the movement of the saidlocking bar by movement of the center or other controlling drawer of the desk is a crank shaft 26, this crank shaft the shaft portion proper 27 is mounted horizontally in a slot 28 extending transversely ojf thedesk frame member 29 with the said shaftportion extending at. both. of its ends Lil this crank arm 33 asshown in; the. drawings will. be; curved so. that its front side will form a rounding cam face 3+1 adapted to easily slide; upon the back of the center or con-trolling drawer 11. Fig; 3 shows the relative position of the partswhen the looking bar is lowered and the; crank shaft 3a projects forwardly and is about. to be engaged by the rear of the center drawer. It

will be obvious. that as; the center drawer is then closed the downwardly extending crank shaft 33 will be swung rearwardly and will cause the rearwardly extending crank arm 30. to move upwardly to theposition shown in v Fig. 1;.thereby carrying the locking bar upward toloCking position.

[Movement of the center drawer only a. short way out from. its inward position will allow the locking bar 1-5 by its own'gravity to move again to lowered or disengaged position thereby unlocking all of the drawers of the pedestal. The crank arm 33. being bent to; av curve with its convex side to the frontas seen in. side elevation obtains an easy sliding contact between the back of the center drawer and said curved crank arm: 1 r I V v It" will. be understood also that thee-rank arm is. of: spring metal of such shape and size that even when the center drawer has been moved to locking position and has carried the locking-bar 15 to locking position, the said locking bar maybe temporarily depressed against the yielding tension of the-saidcrank shaft by'simply moving any side drawer inwardly. Upon such motion the forward lower face 36 of the drawer hook 18 comes into contact with the locking screw 16 upon the bar 15 and through the said face 36 slanting downward as it extends forwardly operates as a cam to force down said locking screw and therewith the locking bar against the tension of the crank shaft 26 until. the parts come to the position shownin Fig. Assoon as thedrawer thus; closed has come to completely closed position the screw 16 comes'opposite the pocket 17 of the hook 18 allowing the crank shaft to again raise the locking bar and so again lock'all of the drawers that are in housed position in that pedestal.

In case the desk of the type having right hand and left hand pedestals of side drawers, two controlling crank shafts are used, one as shown in the drawings herein for the left hand pedestal mounted on the frame work of the desk so. as. to have'its opposite ends overlap the adjacent portions of the'left hand drawers and the left hand edge of the middledrawer and a crank shaft of similar form overlapping the adjacent portions of the right hand drawers and the right hand edge of the center drawer. It will be understood of course that upon the crank shaft for the right hand pedestal the crank arm 30 and crank pin 31 will be at the right hand end and the curved crank arm 33 will be at the left hand .end.

It will now beseen that I have produced a controlling mechanism'. for a desk drawer locking bar which is exceedingly simple in' construction, assembling and operation so that durable andefiective device can be produced at alow cost. It will beseen also that where two pedestals are used inde-. pendent locking and controlling mechanisms will be used resulting in simplicity and surenessof operation. h

It will be noted especially that on account of the control member, namely the crank shaft 26, being of spring metalv it supplies the. yielding element in the desk drawer locking mechanism, whereby even though the controldrawer and the locking bar are in. locking position the individual pedestal drawers as 11, 12 or 1.3 may still be moved from outward position toinward and locked position and that without releasing any of the pedestal drawers already locked. Heretofore this yielding element has usually been inthe form of a separate spring connected to the locking bar or to the lever or con trolling element that moved. the locking bar. By my, construction I reduce the number of parts and simplify their construction and'a'ssembling. This construction also has the marked advantage of allowing the locking bar to be entirely free from springs so that it can more readily and surely be left to be operated simply by gravity to unlocking position or by the control member to locked position.

Without limiting the claims herein to the details of the construction shown in the drawings and now to be described I will further describe in detail the mounting of the crank shaft in the desk as it embodies the simplest, most efiicient and the preferred 7 form of construction. The shaft portion proper 27 of the crank shaft 26 rests in the slot 28 of the vertical desk member 29 which said slot forms a bearing for the operation of the crank shaft towards the center drawer. Towards the pedestal drawer, however, the shaft rests upon the top of the desk frame member 23 being the member upon which the usual extension shelf 38 slides just below the desk top 10. On top of this desk member 23 and the portion of the crank shaft 27 resting thereon is placed a block 39 having in its bottom a transversely extending slot 40 just deep enough to house the crank shaft. After the crank shaft 26 is placed in position the block 39 is placed thereover and fastened in any desired way to the desk frame member 23 and the block 39 with its slot 40 forms the means of holding the control member 26 in place and particularly the means for holding it down when the center drawer 14 is moved back and swings the crankshaft so as to move the locking bar 15 to locking position. It will be noted that this construction makes a very simple one to assemble and also provides a construction that can be readily repaired in that by simply removing the desk top and then the block 39 the crank shaft 26 can be removed and a new one inserted.

It will be noted, further, that the long close bearing provided by the slot 28 in the desk frame member 29 and by the slot 40 in the block 29 and the rest upon the member 23 allows the crank shaft to temporarily twist when placed under strain as when ad ditional drawers are locked when the center drawer is in looking position, without permanently distorting, straining or bending the crank shaft 26.

As the locking bar 15 is slidingly and relatively loosely mounted for vertical move ment upon the upper and lower screws 21 and 22 extending through the upper and lower slots 19 and 20 of the locking bar, I prefer to place. a cleat 41 immediately for,- ward of the said locking bar and securely held in place as by being let into recess formed in the desk frame members .23 and 24 and the intermediate desk frame mem bers as 42 and 43 upon which slide the two upper pedestal drawers. This cleat 41 is spaced a very small distance from the forward side of the locking bar so that it does not interfere with the ready falling of the locking bar by gravity or its easy movement upward by the crank shaft. The cleat, however, is close enough so that when any forward strain is placed upon the locking bar as by a forward pull upon a drawer that is locked, the locking bar will at once come in contact with said cleat 41 and hold the drawer from being unlocked without placing any further bending strain upon the two screws 21 and 22. In other words, the cleat 41 is near enough to the locking bar 15 to solidly support the'locking bar as soon as the limit of its loose motion upon said screws has been reached by forward tension upon one of the locked drawers.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to the rear of the drawers to be locked and adapted to slide vertically, a locking member at the rear of each drawer and means on said locking bar opposite each of said drawer locking members for looking the drawers when the locking baris in one position and unlocking the drawers when the locking bar is in the other position and a. resilient operating wire member provided with a central pivot portion, a curved portion extending at right angles to said pivot portion at one end thereof and located in the path of the locking drawerand a crank portion at the other end of the pivot portion operatively connected with the sliding locking bar whereby the insertion of the locking drawer will move the reciprocating locking bar to locking positionbut the insertion of another drawer is allowed by the locking member of said drawer moving the locking barand thereby temporarily twisting the resilient crank shaft.

2. In a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to the rear of the drawers to be locked and adapted to slide vertically, a locking member at the rear of each drawer and means on said locking bar opposite each of said drawer locking members for looking the drawers when the locking bar is in one position and unlocking the drawers when the locking bar is in the other position and a resilient crank shaft formed of a length of spring wire with one end bent to form a crank arm operatively connected to said lockingbar and its other end bent to form a crank arm extending to the rear of the controlling drawer and moved rearwardly thereby whereby the locking bar is moved to locking position but may be temporarily moved to non-locking position by the insertion of another drawer, a desk ill) frame member supporting the shaft portionof said crank shaft and a cap block secured to said desk frame member over said shaft, the cap block or said frame member being grooved to house said shaft.

3. In a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to the rear of the drawers to be locked and adapted to slide vertically, a locking member at the rear of each drawer and means on said locking bar opposite each of said drawer-locking members'whereby the drawer-locking members are locked when the locking bar is in raised position and unlocked whenthe locking bar is in lowered position and a resilient operating wire member provided with a central pivot portion, a curved portion extending at right angles to said pivot portion at one endthere of and locatedin the path of the locking drawer and a crank portion at the other end of the pivot portion operatively connected with the sliding locking bar whereby the insertion of the locking drawer will raise the reciprocating locking bar to looking position but the insertion of another drawer is allowed by the locking member of said drawerylowering the locking .bar and thereby temporarily twisting the resilient crai'ik shaft.

4. A controlling device operating a desk drawer vertically moving locking bar from the movement of an operating drawer,

comprising a resilient crankshaft formed of a length of spring wire with one end bent to form a crank arm operatively connected to said locking bar and its other end bent to form a crank arm extending to and engaged by the controlling drawer whereby the locking bar is moved to locking position but may be temporarily moved to non-locking position by the insertion of another drawer.

5. In a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to the rear of the drawers to be locked and adp-ated to slide vertically, a locking member at the rear of each drawer and means on said locking bar opposite each of said drawer-locking members for locking the drawers when the locking bar isin one position and unlocking the drawers when the locking bar is in the other position and a resilient wire operating; member comprising a crank shaft mounted on the deskframe and having onecrank arm operatively connected to said locking bar and its other crank arm extending to the rear of the con trolling drawer and moved rearwardly thereby whereby the locking bar is moved to locking position, said crank shaft being resilient allowing a twisting thereof whereby the locking bar can be temporarily moved to disengaged position by the closing of a drawer even when the controlling drawer is and means on said locking bar opposite-each of said drawer-locking members whereby the drawer-locking members are locked when the locking bar is in lowered position and a resilient wire operating member comprising a crank shaft mounted on the desk frame and havmfgone crank arm operatively connected to said locking bar and its other crank arir extending to the rear of the controlling drawer and moved rearwa-rdly thereby whereby the locking bar is raised to locking position, said crank shaft being resilient al- 1 lowing a twisting thereof whereby the lo'cki'ng bar can be temporarily lowered to disengaged position byjthe closing of a drawer even when the controlling draweris closed and said shaft will thereafter by its spring tension raise said locking bar to locking position.

7; In ,a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to the rear of the drawers to be locked and adapted to slide vertically; a locking member at the rear of each drawer and meanson said locking bar oppositeeach o'f-said drawer-locking members for locking the drawers when the locking bar is in one position and unlocking the drawers when the locking bar is in the other position and a resilient wire operating member comprising acrank shaft mounted on the desk frame having one crank arm operatively connected to said locking bar and its other crank arm extending to the rear of the controlling drawer and moved rearwardly thereby whereby'the locking bar is moved to locking position said drawer locking members being adapted to temporarily :move the locking bar to disengaged position against the tension of the resilient crank shaft upon closing the drawers and said crank shaft being resilient'allowinga twisting thereof whereby drawerscan be closed even when the controlling drawer is closed and said shaft will thereafter by its resilience return said bar to locking position.

8; In a desk-drawer locking mechanism the combination of a locking bar mounted on the desk frame to therear of the drawers to be locked and adapted to slide vertically, a locking member at the rear of each drawer and means on said locking bar opposite each of said drawer locking members whereby the drawer-locking-members: are locked when the locking-bar is in lowered position and a resilientwireoperating member comprising' a crank shaft mounted on the desk frame and having one crank arm operatively connected to said locking bar and its other crank arm extending to the rear or" the controlling drawer and moved rearwardly 1 thereby whereby the looking bar is raised to locking position, said drawer-locking members being adapted to temporarily lower the locking bar to disengaged position against the tension of the resilient crank shaft upon closing the drawers and said 10 raise said locking bar to looking position. 16

In witness whereof I have afiixed my signature, this 15th da of June, 1922.

L UIS W. SECOY. 

